What does a luddite have in common
with a mentor and a scrooge?
All three are words coined from
the names of people, real or fictional. Luddite, after Ned Ludd, a textile
worker who destroyed machinery; mentor, after an adviser in Homer's Odyssey;
and scrooge, after the miserly money-lender in Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Such words are called eponyms, from Greek ep- (after) + -onym (name).
This week we'll meet five people, all real, who became words.

solon

PRONUNCIATION:

(SOH-luhn)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A wise lawgiver.
2. A legislator.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Solon (c. 638-558 BCE), an Athenian lawmaker who introduced
political, economic, and moral reforms and revised the harsh code of
laws established by Draco.
Earliest documented use: 1631.